95.3 / 88.5 FM Grand Rapids and 95.3 FM Muskegon

County road commissions battle wintry mix

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Kent County Road Commission plow
Kent County Road Commission

The Winter Storm Warning impacts counties north of Grand Rapids while an Ice Storm Warning has been issued for points south. How do counties game plan for a storm fluctuating between freezing rain, sleet, and snow?

“It’s all about using the experts and that’s the folks at the National Weather Service.”

Kent County Road Commission Deputy Managing Director Jerry Byrne tells us he’s had multiple conversations with meteorologists Wednesday discussing the ice storm’s timing and fluctuating conditions.

“That line of precipitation continues to move somewhat. The line of freezing rain, sleet, or snow. So, that line is continuing to move. So, it’s important for us to look at that, to know that throughout an event and that way we also have crews throughout the county, and we can send text messages, ‘Okay, what are you seeing?’ ‘What does it look like on the southeast corner? The southwest corner or the north?’ So, National Weather Service and then the boot on the ground.”

All indications point to increasing rates of a wintry mix during the evening rush hour. Nearly 100 drivers are treating roadways spreading a sand and salt mix preventing the ice from bonding to state trunkline and main county road pavements.

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Patrick joined WGVU Public Media in December, 2008 after eight years of investigative reporting at Grand Rapids' WOOD-TV8 and three years at WYTV News Channel 33 in Youngstown, Ohio. As News and Public Affairs Director, Patrick manages our daily radio news operation and public interest television programming. An award-winning reporter, Patrick has won multiple Michigan Associated Press Best Reporter/Anchor awards and is a three-time Academy of Television Arts & Sciences EMMY Award winner with 14 nominations.